'Kings of the Course' named in Corporate Open

Amherst Chamber of Commerce member Matt Whelan swings for the green at Park Club during the first Western New York Corporate Open on July 30. Photo by Amy Krawkowiak Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

It was competitive to the very last hole as more than 30 companies vied to win the first "King of the Course" award at the Western New York Corporate Open.

The competition was held on July 30 at Park Country Club and featured some of Western New York's largest firms competing against one another for the top prize. Ernst and Young was most "King of the Course" and awarded the trophy for Best Corporate Foursome.

Members of the winner team were Nick Ambrose, Mike Englert, Justin DiPasquale, and Greg Galardo.

The Western New York Corporate Open was organized by William McGowan, an avid golfer and CFO at AccuMED Technologies Inc.

The idea was born one day while McGowan was golfing with friends and talking about the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge run, held every spring in Buffalo.

"We were talking about the Corporate Challenge and I thought, 'Why not hold a golf tournament here?' There is no local tournament that crowns any company as having the best golfers in Western New York," McGowan said. "Someone has got to want to win the title."

For three years McGowan kept thinking about it but it wasn't until he learned of a new foundation that needed help raising money that McGowan got serious.

When Tom Blaszczykiewicz, CEO of AccuMED, formed the Blaszczykiewicz Foundation earlier this year to raise money to bring life-saving MRI technology to Buffalo, McGowan seized on the chance to turn his dream of a corporate golf competition into reality.

Each year proceeds from the tournament will benefit a different charity. This year the beneficiary was the Blaszczykiewicz Foundation in which $40,000 was raised during the event.

More than 30 foursomes competed and 250 people joined the golfers for dinner afterwards at the Park Country Club.